Fat Versus Sugar

When you eat foods that are high in carbs, your body produces a molecule called glucose and a hormone called insulin.

Glucose is the preferred energy source for your body because it’s the easiest molecule for your body to convert to energy.

Insulin is produced to help transport the glucose around in your body and to help your cells turn the glucose into energy.

When glucose is used as a primary energy source, the fats that you eat are not needed for energy and therefore are stored. With the average person's diet eating 55% in carbs, glucose is the main energy source. This initially doesn't seem like a problem until you realize that the body can't store that much glucose, the extra glucose gets converted into fat which is then stored.

Because your body uses glucose as its main energy source the glucose that is converted into fat doesn't get used. Instead of tapping into the fat reserves when your body runs out of glucose, it tells your brain you need more so you end up reaching for a quick snack like a candy bar or some chips. You can begin to understand how this leads to the development of excess body weight.

The answer is to become a fat burner instead of a sugar burner.

When you decrease your intake of carbs, the body begins to look for an alternative energy source and your body enters a metabolic state known as ketosis. A natural process wherein your body produces ketones. Ketones occur from the breakdown of fat in the liver. Most people have enough fat stored on them to fuel their body for a while.

You might be thinking why isn't the body constantly breaking down fats in the liver? Well, when your body is producing insulin, the insulin prevents the fat cells from entering the bloodstream so they stay stored in the body. That’s why it does not work to do “half”-keto, e.g. decreasing your carb intake slightly and upping your fat intake marginally. More on this in a later blog post.